Do Walls and Banneker Reject Qualified Kids?
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Anonymous
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My son’s worked pretty hard to get good grades and has only one or two grades below 90 (like 88, not 68) grade 7-8. He’s a natural and confident student who is a good writer (an impromptu essay would be just his style) explains math to his friends in whatever class they’re in. His teachers are glad to recommend him as needed.
But I hear that the rejection rate at SWW and Banneker is pretty high. Why is it so high? Can I take comfort in their rejecting large numbers of students with bad GPAs whose parents just apply anyway, or maybe they’re including everyone who puts the school on their lottery application? What are the factors that are going to keep us guessing? |
Anonymous
| They did away with the GPA and test score cutoff at Walls, so some qualified kids are turned away. I believe Banneker may be similar, but has the most rigor/homework. My kid goes to JR, which i personally think seems easy and not rigorous (9th grade— they read books aloud in English?). You have to pick more rigorous courses. Whichever your kid picks, they will find plenty of smart kids. |
Anonymous
| Hint: it’s the kids who should be applying, not the parents at this age. I can’t stand when parents say “we’re applying,” or @we got in.” If only that could be a basis for immediate rejection. |
Anonymous
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There are fewer seats at Walls than there are qualified applicants. That might be true at Banneker as well at this point, but I'm not sure. So yes, walls "rejects" qualified applicants, if by qualified you mean high GPA.
One factor that will play into it at Walls is that, while they don't explicitly say this, they have always sought to balance their class with students from throughout the city. So if your kid is at Deal or Hardy, where a higher percentage of students apply to Walls, they are less likely to get a spot than if they had the exact same credentials but were coming from Sousa or Brookland Middle. I personally am fine with that because a student from Deal/Hardy has a much better by-right HS option than students elsewhere in the city. Since they eliminated the test, admissions to Walls and Banneker are a bit of a black box. I would not assume your child will get in and for sure explore back up options. |
Anonymous
Ha! I agree with you and am so deeply annoyed with parents who use this phrasing. It tells me they’re domineering parents and feel sorry for their kid. |
Anonymous
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Walls definitely rejects qualified applicants. They have 150 slots and last year admitted 190 out of the lottery on the first go (and by start of school went 25 or so into their waitlist). So that's about 215 kids who get in from however many that applied. I forget the exact amount the principal said at parent orientation but it was something like 1000 kids applied through the lottery and Walls took the top 500 GPAs for interviews. Bottom line is - if you made it past the cut-off for an interview, you had about a 40% chance of getting in last year. That means 60% of kids with high GPAs did not get in.
Every year is different so it's hard to predict but we know plenty of kids who are brilliant and amazing who didn't get into Walls. The admissions process is also changing so it's hard to know how that will affect number of applicants and who gets in. |
Anonymous
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Walls went 43 kids into the 9th grade waitlist by Count Day FYI. So it's not quite as bleak as that, if you're willing to switch late. It's more like 46%. https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay
It's totally true that Walls does reject "qualified" kids, but there are outcomes other than Admitted and Rejected. Because what about the lottery element? Let's say someone is genuinely qualified for Walls, but has a terrific lottery number, and they ranked Latin above Walls and get into Latin. I wouldn't really consider that being "rejected" from Walls. That could happen with DCI too, or theoretically any high school. They didn't match but it isn't a rejection. |
Anonymous
Yes, my son did not get accepted to Walls--entirely high A's through 3 years of middle school, 99% PARCCs for years, athlete and debater. He was accepted to Sidwell, Maret, GDS, STA (St. Albans), Gonzaga and the scholars program at SJC (St. Johns.) We know a bunch of kids like him who also did not get a Walls spot (were left on the waitlist). It all worked out--one of those privates was his top choice, we got aid to make it work and it's been a great fit. Just sharing this story as more anecdotal evidence that Walls "passes" on many kids that other far more competitive and rigorous schools are thrilled to have. We're applying our next kid to Walls as well. Who knows what will happen this time around and more importantly what this kid will choose. There are positives and negatives to all these schools and we try to explore as many options as possible for 9th grade! |
Anonymous
Of course not. You need to have plan A, B, and C (to include private) if you are looking at decent HS options in DC. |
Anonymous
Op if your son is interested, he should definitely apply but you should also have a plan B because admission is far from guaranteed and is a little random. my kid had straight As all 3 years in MS, writes really well and easily, was slated to take Precalc in 9th grade and was waitlisted. she was in a group of 5 friends with similar background and 3 were admitted and 2 were put at the bottom of the waitlist. the screening process of hundreds of kids was just a 5 min interview, so we all felt it was a little random. this year i understand it may be different so i dont know. but given the number of people who apply, you just cannot rely in being admitted even if your kid is the best student ever |
Anonymous
| Yes, both reject qualified applicants. There aren't just simply aren't enough seats. It's a shame that DC doesn't allow enough options for motivated/advanced kids. |
Anonymous
Agree, though my kid is in early elementary so I still feel justified saying “we.” For now. This and other threads also make me feel like pouring money into our 529 (which can now be used for private K12) is the right choice since we don’t live in the JR district. We like our DCPS elementary and middle but not sure our high school (Cardozo) will be an option even that far down the road. Would love to stick with public or charters but trying to be realistic. The student who got into competitive privates but not Walls is eye-opening. |
Anonymous
Word choice is very important - they do not reject qualified applicants. they just do not select them. There are guidelines for who meets the criteria to apply. If you meet the criteria to apply, you may rise to the top of the pool and be granted an interview. You may also be admitted or put on the waitlist. I am sure that it happens that you interview and are not admitted or put on the waitlist - in this case I would say that there was something that the student shared that made them not qualified. It could be a statement like - I really do not want to go here - but my parents made me apply. |
Anonymous
NP but people equate Walls with a private school. It’s not. It doesn’t have the same objective as a selective private school just based on the fact that it’s a public school with a selection pool of just DC residents. I’d also argue that as a dc resident I don’t want Walls to choose the same kids as a private school. Walls is a really good opportunity for kids without strong options for their in-boundary school. I don’t need you to be a Harvard legacy or score 1600 on PSATs to be qualified for the school. |
Anonymous
Why? Happens all the time in Magnet programs. Nothing is guaranteed. Quiet it's kept SWW is tired of being the backup to private school families. It takes a lot of time to consistently go thru wait-list and adjust schedules and the like. |